Was she a heroin dealer? A crack addict? A mugger?
No. Worse.
She made her name by taking a client her fellow lawyers chose to avoid. Philip Morris ...
As a Young Lawyer, Gillibrand Defended Big Tobacco - NYTimes.comSomeone has to defend the pedophiles of the world. That's an honorable job, however. There's no money in it, no fame, no career.
The Philip Morris Company did not like to talk about what went on inside its lab in Cologne, Germany, where researchers secretly conducted experiments exploring the effects of cigarette smoking.So when the Justice Department tried to get its hands on that research in 1996 to prove that tobacco industry executives had lied about the dangers of smoking, the company moved to fend off the effort with the help of a highly regarded young lawyer named Kirsten Rutnik.
Ms. Rutnik, who now goes by her married name, Gillibrand, threw herself into the work. She traveled to Germany at least twice, interviewing the lab’s top scientists, whose research showed a connection between smoking and cancer but was kept far from public view.
She helped contend with prosecution demands for evidence and monitored testimony of witnesses before a grand jury, following up with strategy memos to Philip Morris’s general counsel.
The industry beat back the federal perjury investigation, a significant legal victory at the time, but not one that Ms. Gillibrand is eager to discuss...
Philip Morris though, they're rich. They can afford their pick of attorneys, and they can pay very well. It's a simple deal. You work for Philip Morris, you get money for your eternal soul and you serve the dark side until you die. Afterwords, who knows.
If you server Philip Morris and you want to be in politics, you join the GOP.
You don't try to become a US Senator for New York. Gillibrand should never have been appointed and she should be defeated in the primaries.
2 comments:
John Adams represented British soldiers accused of committing murder at the Boston Massacre. The British empire was enormously wealthy and could have hired "top guns" to represent the soldiers, the empire committed atrocious acts of murder to maintain it's dominion, and the empire was terribly unpopular among the people of the colonies for good reason.
By your logic, John Adams should have been prohibited from elected office because he represented evil unpopular monied interests his "fellow lawyers chose to avoid." Well, at least prohibited from serving in your approved party.
I'm no fan of Gillibrand, but she provided legal representation to a company selling a legal product. This is hardly the stuff of scandal. At least she _took_ their money. Barack Obama, as a smoker, _gives_ them money for their cancerous product.
P.S. "If you server Philip Morris and you want to be in politics, you join the GOP."
On the other hand, if you serve as an Exalted Cyclops of the KKK, drive your car off a bridge in a drunken stupor and flee the scene while your passenger drowns, or run the biggest ponzi scheme in history, you join those proudly progressive Democrats.
I've no problem with representing alleged war criminals. The modern equivalent would be those lawyers who represent al Qaeda prisoners. I hold them in the highest regard, just like Adams.
The problem with Philip Morris isn't law breaking, it's that it's so damned evil in a mundane, amoral, rich and diabolical way. Their entire strategy over the past 30 years or so has been systematically addicting children.
I've no problem with smokers. Former smokers would include my mother, my father, my brother, my friend Steve, etc. Current smokers include my sister.
History is loaded with corrupt and wicked Dems of course, but in the past 30 years the GOP has been the party of tobacco and has had very close connections to the legal and marketing firms that work the tobacco industry. Gillibrand's career choice would not be a problem in the GOP.
Post a Comment